USA Today:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Four days after a Florida A&M drum major died following a suspected hazing incident, university President James H. Ammons on Wednesday fired the director of the famed Marching 100, Julian White.

“While Dr. White has had a distinguished career in music education and administration within the university as director of bands,” Ammons said, “I did not feel there was competence involving reporting allegations of hazing within the Department of Music and the Marching 100.”

White, a FAMU graduate who joined the music faculty nearly 40 years ago and took over as director of bands in 1998, said Ammons gave him the choice to resign or be fired. White could not be reached for further comment an hour later, after Ammons announced his termination effective Dec. 22.

Until then, White will be on paid administrative leave and is barred from returning to his office or other campus work areas.

“I admire and respect Dr. White for his body of work,” Ammons said. “I just didn’t think that we had the kind of controls and accountability that we need to have in those bands and those organizations under his supervision.”

Gov. Rick Scott also on Wednesday requested that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement assist in the investigation of Robert Champion’s death in Orlando Saturday after FAMU’s annual Florida Classic football game.

In a letter to FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey, Scott said Champion’s death has “generated great concern throughout the state and indeed, the nation.”

“While I recognize that the investigation into the death of Mr. Champion is being handled by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the reality is that the death investigation significantly impacts the university, the Tallahassee community, and the State of Florida as a whole,” Scott wrote. “With this in mind, I believe it to be appropriate that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement become involved in investigating this matter.”

The rest here.

Columnist for the Washington Post Charles Lane writes today about the University of Maryland cutting eight teams from NCAA competition in a cost-cutting move. An excerpt:

In other words: For all the expensive hoopla over football and men’s basketball — and for all their scandals — the NCAA wants you to know that most student-athletes compete in joyful obscurity and really are scholars as well as jocks.

So how come the University of Maryland is about to dump eight intercollegiate athletic teams, including, yes, men’s tennis and women’s water polo?

Despite the televised exploits of Terrapin football and men’s basketball, the athletic department at College Park has run millions of dollars in deficits for five years. Something had to give, so university President Wallace D. Loh accepted a commission’s recommendation to cut the teams. Together with administrative savings, this should reduce the athletic budget by about $5 million next year.

What we have here is a case study in the true priorities of big NCAA member institutions. Some teams on the chopping block are bastions of the student-athlete ideal at College Park. Except for men’s tennis, they have some of the Maryland athletic program’s highest graduation rates — 90 percent for men’s cross-country and track, according to an October NCAA report.

Fewer than half of the Maryland men’s basketball players and fewer than 60 percent of football players graduate, embarrassing a university that prides itself on high academic standards.

And . . .

An alternative strategy might be to reduce the “revenue” programs to a more human scale — say, the lower-budget approach of the academically excellent schools, such as the Naval Academy and Bucknell, that participate in the Patriot League. There’s no law that says Maryland, or any other school, has to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Lane is wrong on multiple fronts. First off, the four-year graduation rate for the entire student body at Maryland is, according to U.S. News & World Report, 62 percent. The football program’s graduation rate was 59 percent. Why are football players the embarrassment here? 

Second, Lane’s solution to move Maryland from the ultra-competitive ACC to college football’s second tier is the wrong approach.

The problem with revenue sports at big college campuses today is the fact that the university uses those dollars to fund its other athletic programs. With all the talk of actually paying college players for their time on the field or court, what does Lane, et al. think will happen to the overall costs? Under the current formula where the revenue producing sports subsidize the non-revenue producing ones, this just makes sports like football and basketball more expensive and more cuts will happen to the non-revenue generating sports.

What should happen is universities need to stop this accounting gimmickry and decide from a macro level which sports it wants on campus and which it does not. And then find a way to pay for the sports it wants. Asking the revenue producing sports to fund the other athletic endeavors on campus because the administrators don’t want to make tough funding decisions should come to an end.

ESPN:

Ohio State has been in contact with Urban Meyer about becoming the school’s coach, sources close to the ESPN analyst and the Buckeyes have told ESPN.com.

No contract is in place and no announcement likely would be made until after the regular season, but there is strong interest on both sides.

One potential issue is the impending NCAA infractions committee ruling on Ohio State, which has self-reported two sets of NCAA violations in the past year. Ohio State will meet with the infractions committee in late November or early December.

Meyer said Saturday in the broadcast booth at the Nebraska-Michgican game, where he is working for ESPN, that “there’s no truth to that” when asked about reports that he has accepted the Buckeyes’ coaching job.

“I know it’s that time of year. I’ve not been offered any job, and I’ve certainly not accepted any job,” he said.

Contacted earlier this week by The AP, Ohio State AD Gene Smith said no deal had been struck with Meyer. Other Ohio State athletic officials also have denied the reports.

The 47-year-old Meyer is an Ohio native. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach for the Buckeyes in 1986.

He resigned as Florida’s coach on Dec. 8, 2010, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. Meyer won 104 games and two national championships over 10 years with the Gators, Utah and Bowling Green.

Ohio State promoted Luke Fickell to interim coach nearly six months ago when Jim Tressel resigned in the wake of a tattoo-parlor scandal.

The rest here.

New York Times:

The N.C.A.A. has sent Penn State a letter announcing it will begin an inquiry into the university’s institutional control and ethical conduct stemming from the sexual abuse charges against the former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The N.C.A.A.’s move, which Penn State announced Friday, was called “very unprecedented” by Tom Yeager, a former N.C.A.A. investigator. Yeager, who was a longtime member of the N.C.A.A. committee on infractions, also expressed concern about the N.C.A.A.’s looking into issues that occur outside the organization’s typical rules purview.

In the letter, the N.C.A.A.’s president, Mark Emmert, said that the acts described in a grand jury report — including allegations that Sandusky raped or sexually assaulted eight boys over a period of 15 years — “try not only the integrity of the university, but that of intercollegiate athletics as a whole.” Emmert said that the N.C.A.A. would examine both a lack of institutional control, one of the most serious charges the N.C.A.A. can make against a university, as well as “the actions, and inactions, of relevant responsible personnel.”

“The circumstances are uncharted territory in many ways,” Emmert said in a telephone interview. “This is not in my mind or in many other people’s mind an unprecedented application of our bylaws and our constitution. It is a very unusual set of circumstances.”

Since the Nov. 5 release of the grand jury report in the Sandusky case, four prominent Penn State employees, including the president, Graham B. Spanier, and the football coach, Joe Paterno, have lost or stepped away from their jobs. The other two officials — the athletic director, Tim Curley, and the university vice president Gary Schultz — have been charged with perjury and failing to report the allegations to authorities.

State officials have questioned why Penn State officials did not do more to stop Sandusky’s suspected abuse, which the university first investigated in 1998.

Emmert stressed that the letter sent to Penn State was different from a formal N.C.A.A. investigation letter. It includes a series of questions for Penn State to answer, and Emmert said that the N.C.A.A. would monitor the case throughout the legal process. The N.C.A.A. will not send investigators to Penn State’s campus.

The rest here.

Police investigate Syracuse basketball assistant Bernie Fine.

Oklahoma State’s woman’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed in plane crash last night. Details here.

Hillary, who’s father and brother played football at Penn State, weighs in on the scandal here.

I asked yesterday if McQueary’s e-mail saying he went to the police just ruined the Sandusky case. And now it looks like it may have:

Police are baffled by Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary’s claim that he told them about witnessing an alleged rape of a boy by another coach, Jerry Sandusky, in 2002.

McQueary has been at the center of the furor over the sex abuse scandal at the university, in part because the grand jury report states that after seeing Sandusky sexually assault a boy about 10, McQueary left without doing anything.

The report said McQueary reported the incident to former head coach Joe Paterno the next day. It also stated that no one at the school alerted police to the incident.

McQueary, who is now on administrative leave as a coach on the team, sent emails to friends and players this week saying that he did stop the alleged sex assault, and that he did speak to police about the incident.

“I did stop it, not physically … but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room,” he wrote.

Penn State Police Challenge Account That They Were Told of Alleged Rape

McQueary also wrote in one of the emails, “I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police…. no one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds … trust me.”

It wasn’t clear whether McQueary was referring to the campus police force or the force of the town of State College.

Neither department has a record of McQueary bringing the rape accusation to them.

“Right now, we have no record of any police report filed by Mike McQueary,” said Lisa Powers, spokesperson for the university, in an email sent to ABC News today. “This is the first we have heard of it.”

The town’s police force also has no record of McQueary’s allegation.

“He didn’t come to State College police,” State College Police Chief Thomas King told ABC News. “The crime happened on campus and we don’t have jurisdiction on campus.”

“We’ve had no reports (of Sandusky sexually abusing someone) from anybody,” he added.

Opening question to McQueary: Were you lying then, sir, or are you lying now?

Penn State’s Daily Collegian reports:

Jerry Sandusky hosted a child in his home in the 1990s as part of his involvement with The Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit organization. Pennsylvania State Police are now investigating Sandusky’s relationship with this child and with the charity.

Andrea Kotuk, public relations consultant for The Fresh Air Fund, said former defensive coordinator Sandusky hosted one child in his home in State College in the mid-1990s and may have hosted several children in the 1970s.

The organization continued to search files during the day on Tuesday to find if Sandusky did in fact host more children in the 1970s.

The Fresh Air Fund is a non-profit organization based out of New York City that provides inner city children with the opportunity to stay in a suburban or rural home over the summer to foster personal growth.

Sandusky was charged last week with 40 counts on seven different charges of allegedly sexually abusing eight young boys for more than a decade. According to the grand jury presentment, Sandusky met boys he abused through the charity he founded, The Second Mile.

Pennsylvania State Police could not comment on the investigation, citing that it is ongoing.

The rest here.

McQueary, who told a grand jury he witnessed Sandusky raping a boy, has — from the looks of it — changed his story in an e-mail to former teammates. Via the New York Post:

Mike McQueary, under a barrage of criticism for not doing enough to prevent Jerry Sandusky allegedly raping a boy in a locker room shower in 2002, claims he did stop the former Penn State defensive coordinator and then contacted police.

His claims, which appeared in an email to a former classmate obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday, contradict a grand jury report that states a graduate assistant — later identified as McQueary — witnessed the abuse then left to ask his father for advice.

The report adds it was not until the next day that he told Penn State coach Joe Paterno about what he saw.

In the email, McQueary wrote, “I did stop it, not physically, but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room.

“No one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds,” he added. “Trust me.”

McQueary also wrote he “did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police” following the alleged incident and added that it was unfair he was “getting hammered for handling this the right way or what I thought at the time was right.”

The email builds on reports late Monday that McQueary had said he made sure the abuse ceased.

The email also contradicts McQueary’s testimony in a grand jury report in two ways. First, the report never says that he went to the police. Secondly, it specifically says that he left the shower area “immediately, distraught.”

If McQueary went to the police, won’t there be a record of it? And what, he “forgot” he went to the police when he told his story to the grand jury?

Later on, McQueary described his emotions as a “snow globe” to CBS News.

McClatchy:

Sandusky’s NBC interview possible confession to sex crime under Pa. law

And the relevant state law:

But under Pennsylvania’s child protection laws, what Sandusky admitted to in an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas could fit the definition of indecent exposure. If children under 16 were involved, it could be a first-degree misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Indecent exposure fits under the definition of a child sex crime, according to Pennsylvania state law.

Title 18, Chapter 31 of the Pennsylvania state code defines indecent exposure as when a person exposes his or her genitals “in any place where there are present other persons under circumstances in which he or she knows or should know that this conduct is likely to offend, affront or alarm.”

The law considers that exposure to be a second-degree misdemeanor. But the law also says: “If the person knows or should have known that any of the persons present are less than 16 years of age,” it’s a first-degree misdemeanor.

International Business Times:

The mysterious circumstances surrounding former District Attorney Ray Gricar’s disappearance in 2005 have gained attention in light of the Penn State child abuse scandal.

Gricar was an esteemed District Attorney of Centre County when he was approached in 1998 with allegations towards Jerry Sandusky of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy. Gricar surprisingly decided not to prosecute the Penn State defensive coordinator and never explained why. Then, six years later in 2005, Gricar suddenly went missing.

Former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was charged Nov. 5 with 40 counts of sexual abuse against young boys. The case has revealed an elaborate cover-up of the alleged crimes that occurred between 1994 and 2009. Numerous Penn State officials, including revered Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, seem to have been aware of Sandusky’s sexual involvement with young boys that he mentored through his charity, Second Mile.

The case of Ray Gricar is important because it’s an added mystery to an already complicated mess. Many have wondered why DA Gricar failed to prosecute Sandusky in 1998. Further speculations have been made that perhaps Gricar’s disappearance was foul play and may have been related to a cover-up of the Penn State scandal. 

The rest here.

If this isn’t a conflict of interest, I really don’t know what is:

Judge Who Freed Sandusky on Bail Reportedly Volunteered at His Charity

Wow. “Bruins surprise parents with son home from Afghanistan.“

Some commentary on Penn State:

Ross Douthat: The Devil and Joe Paterno. New York Times

Lenn Robbins: As Penn State loses, real sorrow belongs to victims of sex scandal. New York Post

Kevin Fasick: They’re in a Penn State of denial. New York Post

Michael Goodwin: Cowardly Lions at Penn State. New York Post

John Feinstein: Joe Paterno and the end of coaching royalty. Washington Post

Jane M. Von Bergen: Families say Sandusky had free rein. Philadelphia Inquirer

And in pictures:

New York Post:

Philly.com:

I asked that last night on Twitter. Most responded said yes; but Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports responded with:

None. What NCAA rule was broken? RT @GPollowitz: what penalty should NCAA give?

Well, specifically, I have no idea. But I would suspect something like, oh, I don’t know, maybe the ole “lack of institutional control” might do the trick. But take a look at the NCAA rules to see if you can find any. Did you know, for example, that coaches aren’t allowed to use tobacco products? Bylaw 11.1.5, page 51:

The use of tobacco products is prohibited by all game personnel (e.g.,coaches, trainers, managers and game officials) in all sports during practice and competition. Uniform penalties(as determined by the applicable rules-making committees and sports committees with rules-making responsibilities)shall be established for such use. (Adopted: 1/11/94 effective 8/1/94, Revised: 1/10/95, 1/14/97 effective 8/1/97)

I guess if Coach Sandusky were accused of rape of a young boy with a cigar in his mouth, then the NCAA could act. (Dear Bill Clinton: Sorry pal, but you can’t coach in the NCAA.)

One rule that I didn’t think about until browsing through the rules is the requirement that the NCAA certify who at Penn State gets to recruit high school athletes. Page 82-83 covers this certification:

13.1.2.5 Off-Campus Contacts or Evaluations. Only those coaches who are identified by the institution,in accordance with Bylaws 11.7.2.2, 11.7.3.2 and 11.7.4 may contact or evaluate prospective student-athletesoff campus. Violations of this bylaw shall be considered institutional violations per Constitution 2.8.1; how8313Recruitingever, such violations shall not affect the prospective student-athlete’s eligibility. (Revised: 1/10/91 effective 8/1/92,8/5/04, 5/26/06)

13.1.2.5.1 Written Certification. A member institution shall certify in writing and have on file a list ofthose coaches who are permitted to contact or evaluate prospective student-athletes off campus. (Revised:5/26/06)

13.1.2.5.2 Department-Wide Responsibilities. An athletics department staff member who has department-wide responsibilities (e.g., recruiting coordinator) may not contact or evaluate prospective student-athletes off campus unless the staff member is counted as a countable coach in the applicable sport (seeBylaw 11.7.1.2 for restrictions related to recruiting coordination functions). (Revised: 5/26/06)

To recap: McQueary, who saw the alleged rape in the shower, was a) promoted from graduate-assistant to coach and b) made the team’s recruiting coordinator. Nobody at Penn State thought that the guy who failed to act to stop a sex crime might not be the best person to go out and be talking to minor boys about what a great place Penn State would be to play football?

As for when the NCAA might act, I think they’re making the right move and waiting until the legal process goes a little further. But to Penn State fans who argued to me last night that this isn’t a football matter, I say this: You’re high. Of course this is a football matter and if the NCAA doesn’t act in some way, the NCAA should cease to exist and a governing body that can police college athletics will take its place.

A good read by Mark Salter on the state of college athletics:

Among my many vices, I cherish most my obsessive regard for the Georgetown University men’s basketball team. In good seasons and bad, I want and irrationally expect them to win every game. I’m often angry when they don’t, and in my brief but intense disappointment, I don’t think about much more than why didn’t they rebound better or fight around screens quicker or get the ball to their best scorers.

In the aftermath of a hard-fought game. I don’t dwell on the life lessons Hoya players might have learned from losing or the good sportsmanship they showed in defeat. I don’t console myself with the knowledge that a fine group of young men represent my alma mater on the basketball court, and uphold the values of the school and the integrity of college athletics. My only hope is that they’ll win the next game because, as is the case for many sports fans, I care more about my vicarious experience than their real experience of wholly investing their bodies and minds in a game, and coming up short of expectations.

Selfishness is something college sports fans have in common with many university presidents and athletic directors and television networks. In our defense, selfish indifference to anything but a win by our school is only a temporary, if juvenile, reaction to disappointment. But Mark Nordenberg, chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, believes selfishness as well as hypocrisy and dishonesty are the unavoidable requirements of his professional responsibilities.

He is hardly alone, as the entire world learned this week.

When the ACC raided the Big East for new members in 2003, Nordenberg, the most influential of Big East presidents in matters pertaining to football, denounced the move in the strongest terms, and encouraged the Big East to sue the ACC. Earlier this year, he encouraged the Big East to reject a $1.4 billion TV offer from ESPN — in expectation that the conference would receive more generous offers from other networks. He also led Big East efforts to attract new football members to the conference. At the same time, however, Nordenberg was secretly holding discussions with ACC officials about Pitt leaving the Big East for the ACC, along with Syracuse University, a move that is rumored to have been encouraged by ESPN in retaliation for the Big East’s rejection of their offer.

Officials of another Big East school, West Virginia University, denounced the Pittsburgh and Syracuse betrayal and promptly engineered the school’s own departure from the conference. Presently, West Virginia is suing the Big East to evade conference bylaws that require a 27-month waiting period before a member can leave so that its teams can start playing in the Big 12 next year.

In college athletics, football is king. To maximize football’s television revenues, school officials will abandon old and storied conferences for the greener pasture of super conferences. They’ll betray the interests of their other sports programs. They’ll dismiss the loyalty fans and athletes have to traditional rivalries within the conference, and the games that have for decades been the most anticipated contests of their season. They’ll turn a blind eye to recruiting violations. They’ll bestow scholarships on athletes who have no concern or aptitude for academics. In basketball, they routinely recruit kids who only intend to stick around a year or two to improve their stock in the NBA draft. They’re perfectly willing for their conferences to serve as development leagues for professional sports franchises as long as they keep making money.

The rest here.

They’re debating that very question over at the New York Times.

Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights, weighs in:

Penn State should not cancel the rest of its football season in the wake of the horrible sex abuse scandal. Some might perceive cancellation as an act of nobility. But most would see it for what it would be — a desperate and unfair act of damage control by the university to show an outraged public that every step is being taken to do the right thing no matter how draconian.

This is not a football scandal of illegal recruiting and payoffs and prostitutes. It is a national scandal involving morality, weakness of character, passing the buck, inaction, cowardice, neglect and what appears to be outright lying. If the allegations are true, head coach Joe Paterno and top-ranking university officials allowed former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky to roam loose as a sexual predator even though there were clear indications of his abuse of children.

That has nothing to do with the Nebraska game coming up Saturday. It has to do with a culture at Penn State in which the football program, with Paterno as its god, was allowed to do whatever it wanted, including the protection of one of its own regardless of his alleged depravity.

The current Penn State football players did not create what happened; they should not be penalized.

The board of trustees has for now taken the appropriate measures. Paterno was fired Wednesday night. So was president Graham Spanier. But the operative phrase here is “for now.” If the board does not actively and relentlessly force change of the football culture at Penn State, then nothing will be different once the frenzy has died down. That would be the worst disgrace of all.

The rest of the opinions here.

Not good for Buckeye Nation:

Ohio State now faces ‘failure to monitor’

Which raises the question: When will the NCAA get off its butt and weigh in on Penn State?

From the press conference today, it looks like McQueary will be coaching on Saturday.

And I haven’t heard this mentioned yet, but he’s not only an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions, but the recruiting coordinator as well. How in this world is he still employed? Via the Penn State website:

Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator

Mike McQueary

In his eighth season on the staff, Mike McQueary coaches the wide receivers and serves as recruiting coordinator. His work with the wideouts has produced a significant increase in big plays, unit development and record-setting performances. Derek Moye made 53 receptions for 885 yards and eight touchdown catches last year and his 104 career catches are No. 11 on the school list. Deon Butler, Jordan Norwood and Derrick Williams became the first trio of Nittany Lions with 40 or more catches in a season in 2006, and repeated the feat in 2007 and ‘08 en route to making NFL rosters. All three rank in the Top 5 in school career receptions and Top 10 in career receiving yardage, with former walk-on Butler developing into the Penn State career leader in receptions and No. 2 in yardage. McQueary’s efforts as recruiting coordinator have yielded six of the fastest and most athletic classes in Penn State history. He spent the 2003 season as an administrative assistant with the football program and from 2000-02 was a graduate assistant coach. A State College native, McQueary played at Penn State (1994-97) and was the starting quarterback in `97, leading the Lions to a 9-3 record and the Florida Citrus Bowl. An offensive co-captain as a senior, McQueary broke three school records and was one of five finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. In his first career start, he broke school marks with 366 yards passing and 370 yards of total offense in a win over Pittsburgh.

Also, I don’t think the media is doing a good enough job in reporting McQueary’s role. He wasn’t just some graduate-student assitant who saw this happen, he was a former star player on the team.